Dark Themes in Music by Jackson Rose

I sat in the front seat of my mom’s car, the air conditioning blasting in my face in attempts to negate the summer heat. Her music, which she had been listening to for the better part of the last two hours could be heard over the car’s speakers.

“He hit with a thud, there’ll be no work tomorrow, just a funeral for a guy with time that he borrowed.” Those words entered my ears as they were sung, but unlike the rest of the lyrics i had heard since we started our road trip, but just like my relatives at family reunions, they did not leave.

“What’s this song called?” I asked my mom as I turned toward her, intrigued.

“Banshee, by Kendra Morris”, she replied, “the lyrics are interesting, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they are.”
Kendra Morris was born on April 10, 1981 in Lodi, California. She released her first album in 2012 which was titled “Banshee”. She is mainly a soul music singer. Growing up, she listened to lot of soul and rock music. Some of her influences included  Ruth Copeland and Chaka Khan. In “Banshee”, Kendra Morris explores themes relating to death and how one spends the limited time they have.

In “Banshee’, Kendra Morris Use personification and metaphors  to convey the theme  that life is short so you should  make the most of it. By using personification, Morris Helps our listeners understand her life is short so you should make the most of it in the chorus, Morris sings, “Your banshee, your lust indifferent sorrow/ honey don’t run ‘cause there’s nowhere to go/ she’s got your number she got your code.” ("Banshee" 12-14)

In this line, Morris uses personification to compare death to a banshee who will stop at NOTHING to catch you. This supports the theme that death is inevitable, so you should make the most of it.

By using metaphors, Morris helps listeners understand that they must make the most of their life since it’s the only one they’ve got. In the bridge, Morris sings “She wails to her hounds/sink their fangs with a kiss.”("Banshee" 33-34). Morris is comparing a banshee’s hound sinking it’s fangs into you with death. This helps listeners understand the theme that life is short, so you should make the most of it.  

The greatest strength of “Banshee” is the lyrics. For example, in the second verse, Morris sings “Blue is the color your skin fades to when there’s no pump of blood through your veins or your heart when you got no love”("Banshee" 15-16). By phrasing her message in a way that flows nicely to the ear, Morris causes listeners to pay more attention to what she is saying therefore further demonstrating her theme that life is very short so you should make the most of it. The greatest weakness of “Banshee” is Morris’s tone. Her tone is not solemn and saddened like her lyrics suggest. However, she is upbeat and cheerful despite discussing such a serious topic. This could be confusing for some listeners, therefore preventing her message from getting to them.

In conclusion, the theme of “Banshee” is that life is short so you should make the most of it. I can connect this to my own life because I hear adults tell me that all the time, and I know that it’s a topic that you think about more as you get older. I would advise everyone to think about the choices they make and how they’ll affect you in the future.